Above all, they were to see to the execution of a certain very severe and far-reaching measure which the Protector and the Council had determined to adopt in consequence of the late Royalist insurrection and conspiracy.
Either from information that had been received, or merely _in terrorem_, there had, during the past summer and autumn, been numerous arrests of persons of rank and wealth that had hitherto been allowed to live quietly in their country mansions, on the understanding that, though Royalists, they had ceased to be such, in any active sense.

The Marquis of Hertford, the Earl of Lindsey, the Earl of Newport, the Earl of Northampton, the Earl of Rivers, the Earl of Peterborough, Viscount Falkland, and Lords Lovelace, St.
John, Petre, Coventry, Maynard, Lucas, and Willoughby of Parham, with a great many commoners of distinction, had been thus arrested.

There was a general consternation among the peaceful Royalists throughout the country.

It looked as if their peacefulness was to be of no avail, as if the Act of Oblivion of Feb.

1651-2 was to be a dead letter, as if Cromwell had suddenly changed his policy of universal conciliation.